My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause)

johnodon

Does anyone know if RA has different runtime levels (if any at all)?

I'd love to trap a runtime rather than have to use tail to determine when a ROM is fully loaded.

johnodon

Looks like the code to show the launch image is not handling files with spaces very well. This is what is written to the runcommand logfile when I try to launch Aero Fighters (USA).zip

pi@elitedesk:~$ cat /dev/shm/runcommand.log
basename: extra operand ‘(USA).zip’
Try 'basename --help' for more information.
feh: No loadable images specified.
See 'man feh' for detailed usage information
Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-snes9x/snes9x_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/snes/Aero Fighters (USA).zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
tail: /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/logs/retroarch.log: file truncated
feh: no process found

I'll see if I can sort this out.

johnodon

OK...now it is a complete mystery to me how this code even launches the images.

launchpic="$(dirname ${3})/images/launching/$(basename $3 .zip)-launching.png"
feh -F -N -Z -Y -q "$launchpic" & &>/dev/null &

When I echo "$launchpic", this is the response I get...

pi@elitedesk:/opt/retropie/configs/all$ echo "$launchpic"
/images/launching/.zip-launching.png

How in the world is feh even getting the correct path to show the image??? I even went as far as to manually set launchpic="0" and ran the script again. The value didn't change (still 0 as shown with a set command) but feh still displayed the image.

Soooooo confused!

johnodon

Fixed the launch image code with this...

#! /bin/bash
SYSTEM="$1"
RACORE="$2"
ROMPATH="$3"
ROM_BN_EXT="${ROMPATH##*/}"
ROM_BN="${ROM_BN_EXT%.*}"
LAUNCHIMAGE="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/$1/images/launching/$ROM_BN-launching.png"
feh -F -N -Z -Y -q "$LAUNCHIMAGE" & &>/dev/null &
( /opt/retropie/configs/all/pause.sh ) &

OP has been updated.

johnodon

Since I run RP on top of Ubuntu, I haven't been fully testing the RPI side of this. Right now the launch image code is foobar. Working on it.

johnodon

@johnodon said in My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause):

Since I run RP on top of Ubuntu, I haven't been fully testing the RPI side of this. Right now the launch image code is foobar. Working on it.

This is now fixed. OP has been updated.

svera

@johnodon said in My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause):

/opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh

Hi @johnodon, great job! Unfortunately, I did find an issue when using your script, it seems that while using it we're unable to use retropie launch game menu (the one that shows when pressing a key just before game loads). It shows but I'm unable to control it. I'm using a Rpi 3b+ FYI.

johnodon

@svera said in My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause):

Hi @johnodon, great job! Unfortunately, I did find an issue when using your script, it seems that while using it we're unable to use retropie launch game menu (the one that shows when pressing a key just before game loads). It shows but I'm unable to control it. I'm using a Rpi 3b+ FYI.

I'll look into that but personally I turn off the runcommand menu as I have no use for it. I define per-game emulators in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulators.cfg.

John

WeirdH

This is an awesome project! Makes a cab so much slicker. Great job, @johnodon.

johnodon

@WeirdH said in My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause):

This is an awesome project! Makes a cab so much slicker. Great job, @johnodon.

Glad you like it.

I have been hand selecting each and every ROM and building my overlays accordingly. I have been using BezelProject bezels but there are a LOT of issues with them if you have OCD like I do. I have been cleaning them up one-by-one. It's painstaking but I'm currently at 186 games completed. I'd like to land in the 400 - 500 range eventually.

John

Krakatoa

How can I make the images launch using these as the image path?

LAUNCHIMAGE="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/$1/downloaded_images/$ROM_BN_screenscraper_boxart_arrm.png"

it works if I do this.

LAUNCHIMAGE="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/$1/downloaded_images/$ROM_BN-screenscraper-boxart-arrm.png"

I need to figure out to swap - for _

meangreene13

@johnodon, have you used RetroX for Android? It has a similar function to show a launch image during loading and pause the game prior to launch to show controls, which I really like. I was looking for a way to add that to my Retropie build and came across your project. It looks great, awesome job! Not sure I'd have the patience to add this to my games one by one though; maybe on a future, specialized arcade build.

pillbug22

@johnodon Awesome work! Have been looking for ways to up the game on a new cabinet and this looks amazing. Will work on it and report back with any issues.

What theme is that in the first video you posted? Looks like it's from Hursty, but I haven't found a good way to visually scroll throughall the 1000's he has to find a specific one, lol

johnodon

@pillbug22 said in My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause):

@johnodon Awesome work! Have been looking for ways to up the game on a new cabinet and this looks amazing. Will work on it and report back with any issues.

What theme is that in the first video you posted? Looks like it's from Hursty, but I haven't found a good way to visually scroll throughall the 1000's he has to find a specific one, lol

Theme is from here (see the link at top of first post) but it is not a full theme and I adapted it for my needs: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/10806/neo-geo-x-build

John

pillbug22

@johnodon perfect - thank you much!

johnodon

@pillbug22 said in My modified ROM loading process (launch images, bezel overlays, pause):

@johnodon perfect - thank you much!

I'll go on record as saying that I have abandoned most of this approach...well...half of it. I still use the 2 different overlays but I don't pause the ROM at start. I switched around the gameplay-overlay and the control-overlay and just tell people to push the Play/Pause button at any time to pause the game and see the controls. But the ROM starts straight away as normal.

John

Kmetz7547

how do i add game overlays? i have the images but whats the steps? thanks for any help